Elected officials in Rhode Island have been trying to reinvent the state’s economy practically since the Great Depression — and it remains a work in progress. During his State of the State speech on Tuesday, Governor Dan McKee cited an upbeat message. He says Rhode Island is flipping the script on outdated narratives about being an economic laggard. But polling shows Rhode Islanders do not share McKee’s optimism about the state being headed in the right direction.
This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in-depth with president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce Laurie White.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Ian Donnis: Let’s start with Governor McKee’s state of the state address earlier this week. He cited an upbeat message, and I’m sure you’re happy about how his new budget proposal includes no broad based tax increases. But as we know, Rhode Island struggles with a lot of familiar challenges, the lack of a more diversified economy, underperforming public schools, challenges with technology. So, do you think McKee was really right to say that Rodin is flipping the script on old narratives?
Laurie White: I think he is right. And we really applaud the themes that he outlined in the State of the State message particularly leading off very strongly with the notion of certainly opposing the imposition of any new taxes, broad based taxes. And we think that is really essential, particularly now we have a competitive advantage at this point with our neighboring state, Massachusetts. And there’s been so much discussion, as you know, about the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, really trying to recruit a lot of our marquee employers. So it’s important that we have a steady state in terms of keeping our tax climate competitive. So, we say congratulations, Governor. Thank you for not putting any new taxes into the budget which will be released on Tuesday. And we are hoping that as the legislative session continues, we’ll be working with the Speaker and the Senate President to continue that message as well.
Donnis: As you say, Massachusetts did raise taxes on its most affluent residents. What’s your sense of how that has affected Massachusetts?
White: Yeah, I’ve been doing some reading on that and the piece that I read as recently as today essentially says the jury is still out because due to tax extensions and the most recent filings, not really able to get a read on it. But common sense and certainly anecdotal evidence suggests that as the tax burden increases, people that have choices, particularly now that we’re living in an economy where hybrid work is the norm, people can move and take their wages, take their charitable giving, move it anywhere where they feel as though they have the chance to be able to keep what they earned.
Donnis: We’ve heard about the issue of income inequality for more than a decade, and President Biden in his farewell address this week warned about encroaching oligarchy in the United States. If business people like you don’t think higher taxes on the rich is the correct way to introduce more equality or fairness into the economy, what steps would you support?
White: The notion of imposing taxes on a particular threshold of wage earners and doing that at the exclusion of not really understanding how to rationalize spending, I think you know, we saw from the 2024 election that Americans really don’t want to see any further encroachment into their pocketbooks. And if you think about what it takes to get to a million dollars these days, if you look at an average small business owner who pays taxes through the personal income tax, as opposed to through the corporate tax, that’s really the measure of small business success. And if we’re going to keep small business owners really in a position of wanting to succeed in Rhode Island, keeping employment, innovating, do everything that we know that we want small businesses to do in Rhode Island. We have to understand the correlation between the tax burden. and small business growth and employment growth.
Donnis: What do you consider the top obstacles to improving Rhode Island’s economy?
White: Top obstacles – Workforce. My colleagues and I at the chamber, we are out every day. We are talking to large employers as part of a new initiative called get stuff done for RI. So it’s a job retention program. We’ve seen 30 of the state’s largest employers over the last three or four months. And their feedback is essentially the same, which is we are having trouble finding and recruiting people, retaining people, because of a number of factors, particularly the inability to get people that are skilled in the jobs that are being created today, populated today that do require some advanced education. So we are working very closely with our colleges, our universities to say, Hey, if we make a bridge, if we create a better bridge, a more tightly wound bridge between what our employers are asking in terms of skill sets and training opportunities and tapping into what the University of Rhode Island is offering, what Providence College, Johnson and Wales, Bryant University, and setting up real specific training programs like certificate programs that’s not going to take forever and ever to complete, but you can do these stackable certificates in a matter of weeks and months. Rhode Island College is a perfect example of that. We need to make those linkages tighter.
Donnis: We’re talking here with Lauri White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. And Laurie, one of the big stories we’re watching this year is whether Hasbro chooses to stay in Rhode Island or move to Massachusetts or somewhere else. How do you assess the state of Rhode Island’s effort to keep Hasbro here?
White: As you may know, the news of Hasbro’s potential exodus to Massachusetts surfaced as a result of our Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook luncheon, where I had the opportunity to interview Chris Cox, who is the CEO. Although that didn’t come up during the luncheon, it did it did pop after. But in the intervening months, I know that the General Assembly, I know the Governor’s office, Commerce RI, Mayor Smiley, the 195 District Commission, and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce have all made this issue number one. Metaphorically, symbolically, it’s really important that we keep Hasbro. It is my understanding that a number of potential sites have been pitched to Chris Cox and the Chamber for one was really excited about suggesting a spot on the waterfront in the 195 district. We think that would be absolutely superb because that really is what the 195 district lands were set up to do, which is to get a marquee employer. So we were proposing an interactive toy box, if you will, of a building that would really bring the streetscape into Hasbro and to be able to link them with Rhode Island School of Design, Brown, other places to really end that whole talent challenge. So the net net of it is, I don’t think anyone knows what the result will be because only Chris Cox and his board would know. So anyone that says they have an idea, they probably don’t.
Donnis: If Hasbro does go, do you think that would say more about Hasbro and its evolving, its evolution as a business, or is it something more about Rhode Island and Rhode Island’s business climate?
White: Hasbro as a publicly traded company needs to answer to its shareholders. So one can never find fault with that. That is their fiduciary responsibility, but I think it’s an interesting wake up call for all of us that nothing is a given. And any of our large employers, no matter who they are, the potential for them to pull up stakes and move elsewhere. I do think it would be definitely a psychological, psychic symbolic loss. And let’s just hope that we are able to even retain a piece of the business. So if there is a piece that Hasbro says, you know, we really want to be in the seaport district in Boston because we think we can draw talent from the universities and schools there. You know, we completely understand that. But maybe there’s also an opportunity for Hasbro to set up an additional satellite operation here in Providence in the 195 district.
Donnis: Let me stop you there because our time is limited. Former governor Gina Raimondo made a significant use of tax credits to try and promote economic development. There were some big announcements that always did not amount to much in the current day as with general electric or efforts in the I-195 district. What do you think of that approach by former Governor Raimondo to use to rely on tax incentives in a significant way?
White: I’m very involved in the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives throughout the country. And I’m privy to what other states, what other jurisdictions do and the commitment that they make to incentivizing businesses to stay. So it’s completely consistent with the practice throughout the United States and I think it’s a really valid and sound one. As long as you do your due diligence on the front end to ensure that the deal that you are looking to consummate is in fact worthy and you can see the end result in terms of either employment or tax revenue or spin off jobs.
Donnis: You established the Jim Taricani lecture series at your alma mater, the University of Rhode Island, to recognize your late husband, the fantastic investigative reporter Jim Taricani, who was a friend to many of us. It’s no secret that President Trump has repeatedly referred to the press as the enemy of the people. With President-elect Trump due to take power in the week ahead, I wonder what kind of concerns does that raise for you as someone whose late husband was an investigative reporter?
White: Thank you for bringing that up, Ian, and thank you for your very kind comments about Jim. I have endowed the Taricani Lecture Series on First Amendment rights and freedom of the press for responsible journalism at URI. We’ve taken it up a notch. Certainly the press is not the enemy of the people. And I’ve been giving this a lot of thought over the course of over the last couple of years while this endowment and this program has been ongoing. And if Jim were here, I think what Jim would say is that responsible journalism will continue. It’s enshrined and embedded in the United States constitution. One of the only freedoms granted to a specific sector and I know that he would also say that it’s incumbent on all of us as readers, as citizens, as listeners, as viewers of news to educate ourselves and to be fully informed about the whole spectrum of issues and not to get your information from any one source, but really to piece it together and really examine different points of view. I know that responsible journalism will continue. And speaking as a Rhode Islander, I know that we are really fortunate in Rhode Island that the press corps that we have here is really first rate both in radio, television, print, and the like, and I think the press corps in Rhode Island has really earned the public’s trust.
Donnis: All right. Well, we’ve got to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us. President of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, Laurie White.
White: Thank you, Ian.
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A cohort of pro-gun Democrats used to be a defining characteristic of the Rhode Island General Assembly. Over time, though, that presence has diminished — and the state has passed a series of new gun laws in recent years. Now, this may be the year when Rhode Island bans new sales of semiautomatic rifles, what some people refer to as assault weapons. You can read more about that in my Friday TGIF politics column, posting around 4 this afternoon on X, Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, and at thepublicsradio.org/TGIF.
That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producer is James Baumgartner. Our editor is Alex Nunes. I’m Ian Donnis, and I’ll see you on the radio.
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